


See You Soon

by juiceboxjellyfish



Series: Out Of Time [2]
Category: Carry On - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: AU, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, M/M, Reunions, Sequel, Time Travel AU, these tags are kind of spoiler-y so maybe stop here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-03-02 22:38:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13327863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juiceboxjellyfish/pseuds/juiceboxjellyfish
Summary: The kind of requested and not-that-long awaited sequel to Out Of Time!Will I let them be happy this time? Who knows.You know. Or at least you will if you read this. So do.





	See You Soon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Paned](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paned/gifts).



> This was written specifically because you begged me to.  
> If it wasn't for your birthday I wouldn't have done it. Enjoy.

SIMON, out of time…..?

I sit up. I don’t know what time it was when I crashed, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t dark out. My clothes and hair are covered in dust from the road, and my eyes are swollen from crying, even though the last tears dried out long ago. I’ve been lying face down in the dirt for several hours, and my lungs are full of dust just like the rest of me. Who cares?

I look around the village, my eyes slowly adjusting to the dark. It’s small and dusty and useless, because of course it is. It’s 1506, everything is dusty and useless. Technology barely even exists yet, and time travel won’t be invented for hundreds of years. I’ll be dead by then, and Baz won’t even be born.

Ironically enough, I’m out of time. 

I get up from the ground and start heading back to the time machine. It can’t take me anywhere, but maybe it can provide some warmth for the night. As I step through the door, the hopelessness of the situation hits me again. I feel new tears burning the backs of my eyelids, and my eyesight becomes blurred as I look at the broken console. I want to kick it and punch it and scream at it for landing me here, but breaking it more won’t do any good. Instead I just collapse on the floor, where I lay crying until I fade into a dreamless sleep.

I wake up in the morning, feeling no more rested than I did when I fell asleep. Not that it matters. It doesn’t feel like anything does. The space that once held an overflowing heart is nothing but a void now, and as my eyes scan the room, I realise that it’s always been that way. I didn’t fly off into the universe to quench a wild thirst for adventure or knowledge like other time travellers.  
I was just trying to fill that empty space that’s always been there, trying to escape or distract myself from the reality of my life. Of course I was curious about the world, but only because the little slice of it that was mine was so unbelievably dull. I hoped I could find something to fill the grey void.  
And I did.  
But then the universe took him away.

I slam my fists on the console, cursing at no one. A red warning light blinks angrily at me, and a broken warning beep escapes the speakers. My back straightens, and I punch the console again. The light flickers on, and the speakers push out another weak warning noise.  
There’s still power. Parts of the machine still work.  
The universe is endless. You can’t be out of time, not really.  
And there’s still power.

Standing up, I feel another stream of warm tears roll down my face, creating lines in the street dust and cleaning my irritated eyes.  
”Hang on Baz,” I whisper. ”I’m coming for you.”

 

I open up all the doors, hatches, and lids so that I can look at the machinery. It’s severely damaged, but I’ve fixed this time machine before. Many times. Of course I usually have access to more advanced technology than I do now, but then again I’ve never been as motivated as I am now. I use the handbook as as guide, but it’s not a lot of help. It’s mostly just full of illustrations of spare parts and tools that I don’t have. You’d think time machines would come with a ”how to fix the console if you crash-land in an unfortunate time period” pamphlet, but apparently they just expect you to always bring the spare parts with you. I suppose a responsible time traveller would.

 

SIMON, later.

The power that’s left won’t be enough for the whole machine. I’m going to have to remove the less necessary parts, which sounds simple enough, but has actually proven itself to be a complicated and difficult task. In order to remove and repurpose the smaller parts, you need to know what everything does. I’ve read the handbook so many times that I could probably recite it word for word, and the blueprints are practically imprinted on my eyelids. And still, the task feels half impossible. But nothing can stop me from trying.

On the mornings when I wake up feeling more hopeless than usual, I remind myself of Baz. I think of his smile and his hands and his hair and how soft his lips were against mine when we hid from the world together. And I think of my last words to him.

See you soon.

 

SIMON, even later.

I don’t need lights. I don’t need speakers. Warning sounds? Who cares? I’d ignore them anyway. A crash landing in victorian London would still be a landing in victorian London. The display screen is unnecessary too. I don’t need a screen to tell me where and when I’ve landed, I can just open the door and look. That’s usually what I do anyway.  
I’ve removed all these things so I can use their parts to repair and rewire the main engine. 

The handbook really isn’t of that much help anymore, because the engine looks almost entirely different. I’m keeping a journal to track what I’ve done to it, just in case I need to undo any of it. Not that I could anyway, since I’ve had a smith mould some of the parts to replace broken ones. He was deeply confused by their purpose, but I paid him excessively so he agreed to do it anyway.

 

SIMON, quite a long time later.

”See you soon” I told Baz. That was many months ago in my timeline. I hope that it won’t be months in his. The snow has started falling here. I’m not sure what month it was when I first crashed, but it was either spring or early summer. Now, it’s painfully cold to sleep on the time machine floor. I got rid of the heating ages ago, and even if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t waste my precious power on that. I wonder if it will snow in his timeline before I get back. I hope it won’t. I don’t want him to wait that long.  
I shiver as I lay down on the floor and wrap my coat around me, and I close my eyes and allow myself to get lost in thought.

In my head, I’m in an open field. The sun is shining brightly in a clear blue sky, and the clouds are light and fluffy. Baz and I are sat in the grass under this summer sky, and he asks me if guys can be in love with each other in the future. My chest aches when I turn to him.

He wanted to live in the future.  
I promised him I’d take him. My chest aches even more.

 

SIMON, even later than that.

I’ve disabled and reused pretty much every part of the time machine that isn’t directly related to time travel. The only parts of the machine that still look like the original blueprints are the ones that are completely essential and control the very basics of time travel, and even those have had some parts switched for newer or just sturdier ones. I’ve removed most of the safety contraptions and used them to make sure that the actual timey-stuff functions. I found the fault with the date settings and rebuilt that entire part, because I can’t risk landing in the wrong year again. 

I would rebuild every single part of the machine if I had to, and let’s be honest, I’m getting pretty close. It’s taken me over a year, it’s probably closer to two years, but if it works it will be worth it. I would invent time travel for Baz. And considering how many times I've rebuilt the different parts of this time machine, I probably could. Every day without him feels endless, and there have been many days.  
”See you soon.”I told him.  
Doesn’t feel soon to me. 

 

SIMON, the moment that decides it all.

I don’t know if the engine works, and I cant afford any test runs. The remaining power needs to be enough for two trips. Victorian London, and then as far into the future as we can afford. At the very least the 21st century. But I’ll burn up all the power to make the first trip if I have to, because hiding with Baz is still better than any option that doesn’t have Baz in it. I’ve focused all the power on the actual time traveling, and the risk of crash landing has never been higher.

As I activate the engines and set the date, I mumble the same thing to myself as I did when I first noticed the little red warning light.  
”Hang on Baz, I’m coming for you.” And as I pull the lever to send myself flying, I whisper ”see you soon.” The engine roars loudly, and my stomach drops as I take off.

 

BAZ, soon.

It’s spring again. The world is waking up, or whatever. Still feels pretty dead to me. I’m sitting in a field and staring emptily in front of me. It’s the same field I once sat in with Simon, asking him about the future. I remember thinking the way his hair glowed in the light made him look like the sun, and I can recall exactly what my chest felt like when I spoke to him. And it hurts like hell.  
Because he didn’t come back for me.  
Since I’m all alone, I don’t bother holding the tears back.

I’ve lied down on my back to stare at the sky when a loud crash causes me to jump up. I look around, and something at the end of the field has torn up the grass, stirring up clouds of dirt in the air. The sunlight makes it hard to tell, but it looks like a machine of some kind. A machine that has crash-landed. My heart skips a beat. Could it be…  
A door swings open, and a person steps out. He looks around, spots me, and starts waving his arms.  
”BAZ?” he shouts, taking a few steps forward, and I’d know that voice anywhere.  
”SIMON!” I yell, and then I start running. He starts running too.  
I’m running like I’ve never run before, and my heart is swelling in my chest. When I get close enough, I see that Simon is smiling with his entire face. He yells my name again and throws himself in my arms, his face beaming like the sun. The force almost knocks me over, and I spin around on the spot to regain my balance.  
Simon puts his feet down, grabs me by the collar of my shirt and pulls my face down to his. His lips are just as soft as I remembered. I wouldn't believe it was real, but none of the countless dreams I've had have captured the kissing this perfectly. Nothing but the real thing could put butterflies the size of birds in my stomach or fill my lungs with liquid gold. His warm skin under my fingertips and his desperate lips on mine feel more real than anything else I've experienced, and if the world stopped spinning right now and all the stars died out I wouldn't even notice. Because Simon Snow is alive, I'm in love with him, and he came back for me.  
We’re both crying when we pull away.  
”You came back!” I exclaim, smiling so widely that my cheeks hurt. He doesn't respond at first, only nods and smiles, tears still streaming down his face.  
”How long has it been for you?” he asks me.  
”A year” I respond. He looks down at the ground, and I wonder how long it's been for him.  
”I’m so sorry. I tried to be earlier” he mumbles. I grab his shoulders and pull him closer to me.  
”I don’t care! I thought I’d never see you again” I say. He kisses me gently.  
”Baz, I’d never give up on you. I just had some bad luck with the machine.”  
”Bad luck? How bad?”  
And he starts explaining.

 

SIMON, soon.

I tell him everything, from landing in the wrong century to flying an untested time machine into the unknown. When I’m done with the story, I gesture to the crashed time machine.  
”Though I think it might be a while before I can take you to the future” I admit. Baz is just grinning at me, and pulls me closer to himself.  
”As much as I want to go to the future, I’d be happy with you in any century” he says, and kisses me softly, smiling against my lips.  
”We’ll be fine for a while” I whisper, and he nods.  
We stay in the field, watching the clouds together and talking about what happened while we were apart. The time machine has broken down again but that doesn't scare me. I can fix it. We might not know when we'll be able to run away together and live a free life, but it doesn't matter. Right now Baz's hand is in mine and our love is timeless. 

Because the universe is so kind that even when it should be impossible, it will bring soulmates together.

**Author's Note:**

> "the universe" more like me
> 
>  
> 
> So, to all the three people who wanted a happy ending, there you go!  
> But especially to Paned. Happy Birthday!! I know I said so in the beginning notes but I wrote this especially for you, so I really hope you actually read this one *cough cough*
> 
> Okay that was unnecessary sass, I'm sorry. You're great and I had fun writing this. Happy bday!
> 
> To everyone who wanted this who isn't Paned, I hope you liked it too! It's kind of sad that I won't get any more comments screaming at me for breaking their hearts because those are always fun, but sometimes you've gotta give the people what they want.
> 
> Okay I've talked for way too long. If you asked for a sequel you're morally obligated to leave a comment on it, and if you didn't you can leave a comment anyway just to be kind. Goodnight.
> 
> (what is with the sass today I need to CHILL)


End file.
